Severe Flooding in Western Region of
Java Island in Indonesia Tzu Chi Immediately Sends Food Supplies
and Sets up Medical Treatment Stations
Bao-Chin Gao Reporting from Indonesia for News of Great Compassion
(Translated by Mike Lee, Northern, California)
At the fifteen villages in the western region
of Indonesia's Java Island, the most severe flooding to hit
the area in over twenty years is taking place. Just like the
deluge at Shi-Zhir(a suburb of Taipei), the volunteers of Tzu
Chi within days delivered meal boxes and drinking water to the
victims and at the same time set up medical treatment stations
to ensure the health of the suffering people.
Hopping aboard the military rubber rafts and
heading toward the disaster area, one can observe that many
houses are still half submerged. The fallen leaves have made
the waterway hindered and difficult to travel upon. Below the
rubber raft are previously lush green pastures of grain. Now,
with this worst inundation of two decades, which will flood
for five to six days, the farmers' harvests for this season
will once again be ruined.
The one stroke of luck during this misfortune
is that most of the local residents make their living by digging
the sands along the river. The boats they ordinarily use for
work now are put to perfect use in saving properties, as well
as being refuge for the entire family. The Tzu Chi volunteers
of Indonesia mobilized at once from the first day of the flooding,
delivering drinking water and 1100 units of meal packages to
the victims. Since then, they prepared over two thousand meal
boxes everyday, with the hope that these suffering masses would
not go hungry as they salvaged their belongings.
After so many days of flooding, the
sanitary condition in the disaster area became horrific, so
the Tzu Chi volunteers also set up treatment stations to provide
medical care, so that the flood victims can escape from the
watery calamity and avoid the pains of illnesses.
